February 2019

FEBRUARY 2019

Feb 20, 2019  
February has definitely been Winter weather. We now have over 43 inches of snow this season which is 24 inches above normal. The soil temperature remains at 30 degrees at four inches and varies between 28 and 32 degrees. Snow seems to keep the soil warmer than bare soil. Most folks are tired of snow and are grumbling quite a bit with this snow. I for one am smiling as the snow piles up. I see lots of nitrogen rich water that will slowly soak into the soil as it thaws out. True a good portion will run off but what does soak into the ground is the best ever fertilizer. Cold temperatures will kill bugs and bug eggs so it's a win win for gardeners.

GARDENING YEAR HAS STARTED

The lettuce has sprouted in just five days. It's now under the grow lights for 16 hours as day with great hopes. The garden season has truly started. These were germinated in 69 to 73 degree temperature and bottom watered once. Regular Florissant lighting will be used and space from plants will begin at two inches. Bottom watering will be done every three to four days.

I need to start some cabbage in the tray space that was lettuce. I should buy fresh seed. I only have seed that's several years old.

Feb 24, 2019 
The started seeds are growing great. I planted another tray with flowers this time. I still have to plant cabbage.

These are heirloom hollyhocks from some where. I'm not sure about where they came from or how old they are. I do like hollyhocks but have never had any lock growing them. Supposedly once they are planted some where they will self seed and keep growing. Grandma Potter had wonderful hollyhocks growing beside her house and I always admired them. I heard that Grandma Potter was hard person to get along with but I never had any trouble with her. I guess holly hocks are a flower that reminds me of her. The smell of dill reminds me of my mother. Evidently she grew it in her garden every year because that's the smell I remember in Mom's garden.

The weather is still very harsh. The Season Snowfall 52.8" +32.3" Season to Date. We had 9.5 inches just last night. It will take a while to shovel out. Then I won't be able to get out of the neighborhood until the snow plow goes by. It doesn't look good for an early start in the garden this year. The forecast is for cold bone chilling temperatures for the rest of the week. It will be in the single digits every night this week and highs during the day only in the teens. Helping the neighbors with snow removal is the only time I can get to talk with them during the winter months.

Yea, I started the cabbage today. I do want to make more sauerkraut this year. I make it two years ago but didn't refrigerate it or keep it hydrated so it dried out and went bad. I do have the jars and the garage refrigerator space for many gallons of sauerkraut. Yum. Last year the cabbages looked really good until the weeds took over and smothered it. Hopefully, this year will be better.

Feb 26, 2019  
No more seeds sprouted. It's been 10 days for the peppers and onions. I recall that the onions were up in five days when on the heat mat down stairs last year or maybe the year before. The soil is 72 degrees average in the computer room so that should be enough to sprout the seeds. The ones on the towel have not sprouted yet. There are no signs that they are even thinking about it. 

We received another 9.5 inches of snow over the weekend. It bring the total season snow up to 53 inches which is 31 inches above normal and I have the feeling that nature isn't done yet. Farmer's Almanac says that more snow will come in march with stormy weather all of March and then a wet April. Spring will not arrive until the end of April. It looks like we are in for a wild ride this Spring.r.

January 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR

January 7, 2019  
Three days of 55 degree weather. January? I was out at Terra Nova Gardens today. Only a sweat shirt was needed and I was thinking about going down to T-Shirt. Seven years ago when I first acquired Terra Nova Gardens the weather was just like this. I was working in a T-Shirt in January. I don't remember what the summer was like then. I think it was the summer of record number of 100 degree days. I believe it was the summer I built the fort for Bradley. It was so hot that summer. Maybe we are headed into another hot summer.

I covered up four beds in the North half of the garden. It was real muddy and soft. I have three beds left to cover up. I took down the tomato towers and moved the A-frame to where the tomatoes were growing last year.

January 22, 2019 Tuesday
Still no progress on the seed starting station. I have a plan for the new station but just haven't started building it yet. I'm concentrating on the kitchen floor.

October 2018

October 4, 2018 
October continues the bi-polar weather with a 90 degree day then back to mid fifties. The next few days will be 50s and 60s. It's a typical Nebraska October. The first three days of October had a misty rain that fell with a total accumulation of just under a 1/2 inch. I think we are good on moisture for awhile. 

Two of the beds at Urban Ranch have reached the limit of the land scape timbers life. I am thinking that these timbers are most likely 10 years old or more. It's time to replace them with some thing more permanent. 

Every project has to have an anchor. This is the anchor block for the rest of the perimeter of the bed. It takes the most time to set because it has to be perfect in alignment, level inline, and level across. The rest of the blocks take there lead from this anchor block.

This will be the end result for the entire perimeter. I have four more blocks on the front patio and many more at Terra Nova Gardens. Maybe I can make a run to Terra Nova to get them and dig some potatoes while I'm there.I've been thinking about this for some time and have now started the process for one bed. The took about 3 hours to build but the process is getting faster as I perfect the process of laying the blocks. Once the first level block gets laid the rest go really fast.

September 2018

September 13, 2018 
September has not been much better for gardening than the rest of the year. It's so embarrassing to look at how great the year started and how unruly the garden has become over the Summer. I have managed to keep the outside of the garden looking relatively under control but even that has suffered this year. I was glad to see the knock off rose bush survived the harsh Winter. It suffered during this year but perhaps next year it will be back to it's beautiful self. I'm hoping to be able to propagate some more rose bushes to plant around the garden area. I'm also hoping to spend more time at Terra Nova Gardens in September reclaiming the garden. 

This is the ugly mess that the garden has turned out to be this year. The bones are still under there but the grass and weeds have taken over the land again. It doesn't take long for nature to reclaim the land when unattended.

After an hour or so I completed a trim of the grass and covered the area with a tarp. I'm hoping this will keep the weeds at bay better than the carpet. This is a 12'X20' tarp for $20 at Walmart. When I get the next section cleared I'll buy another tarp to cover it. It will take five tarps and some smaller ones to cover the entire area. It would be nice to get it all covered before Winter but I think that's probably not going to happen.

Slowly but surely the reclamation is at work. I'm almost starting over with the garden. I've come to the conclusion that the garden is too much to handle at this time in my life. Other things always seem to get in the way of garden time. By the end of the my energy is spent and I'm not in the mood to spend a couple hours in the garden. Next year my garden at Terra Nova Gardens will be half the size with only every other bed in production. The other beds will be in a rejuvenation process. Then the next year it will switch with the ones that have been rejuvenated this year will be in production and the beds that have grown vegetables next year will be rejuvenated and so it will go into the future years. It will a total new concept. 

September 26, 2018 
The month is ending soon. I have been making some headway at Terra Nova Gardens.

 This I believe is bed #9 before I started cleaning it up. The process was to weed whack the weeds down to the ground. Then rake the debris off the path and bed. Then do a general soil turn over. No deep trench compost preparation just yet. The reclamation process continues as long as I can until the ground is frozen.

This is the result of about two hours of work. The bed is now exposed. I that that the best answer for weed control is to cover the ground with carpet but turns out the dust settles on the carpet, weed seeds sprout in the dust, and roots grow down through the carpet. If the carpet is turned over occasionally, then the method works but if not weeds grow as if they are in the soil without the carpet barrier. My next thought was to cover the beds with tarps but that will block the rain from soaking into the soil over the Winter. So I'm taking the tarps off for now and leaving the soil exposed for Winter moisture to soak into the soil. Perhaps in the Spring I'll cover the beds again to keep weeds under control until I'm ready to prepare and plant the bed.

The potatoes that were planted oh so long ago and neglected all summer long have matured. The potato bed had weeds just like bed #9 before cleaning off the debris. Now the harvesting of the potatoes can begin. I'll be keep them in the ground as long as I can. Storage in the store room is not the best for potatoes. So I need to keep them fresh in the soil until the soil started to freeze. Hopefully, that won't be for another month.

August 2018

August 29, 2018 
August has been a total bust for gardens this year. The best I can do is to press into cleanup and try to get ready for next year. The plan is for reclamation of the garden. The bones are there it just needs to be cleaned up. I'm planning to cover up each bed with carpet to keep the weeds from coming back when I get them cleaned up.

July 2018

July 6, 2018
Here it is July with not much more progress in the garden.

June 2018

June 9, 2018
Another month has scooted by way too fast. It's been blazing hot the end of May and now into June. My water tank is mostly full but struggles to stay that way. Rain comes but only in very small amounts. Many times less than .1 inch. Plants are struggling to survive let alone produce. My garden schedule is extremely sporadic this year. Family, friends, and neighbors have tasks for me to help them with and I just can't say no. I don't feel that my lack of gardening care this year is a strain on my life. Helping others is my focus and gardening is my enjoyment. So if pulling weeds is all that's accomplished this year so be it.

June 13, 2018

 Weeded the first planting of corn today. Pulled the weeds in bed 3 & 4, Gave bed 5 a stir, the tomato bed, and weeded bed 2, the cabbage bed. It was a very productive day for sure. Things are starting to look a lot better. Now concentration is on the second half of the garden.

I started some seeds in soup cans. Squash, cucumbers, and Chard. I'm not sure they will come to harvest but I think they should have plenty of time to mature. It's the latest I've ever planted such plants and it will be a experiment for sure.

The volunteer tomatoes that looked so desperate are perking up and will make it. I knew those cherry tomatoes woould not die. They are too determined to give up and die. They will be taking over the bed before long.

I've been wondering what to do about the rain gutter trough that is leaking and decided to use the Flex Seal to line the entire gutter. That should seal it up. I have room for the three gutters on the patio which would give the total buckets to 21 when in full production. The watering would be entirely gravity fed with mini float valves to keep the gutter full. 

I think I'll open up the garden to outsiders that I know next year. Jeanie would be a good candidate and possibly Sharon. I'm not sure who else. I would get the beds ready and they could plant and care for what ever they wanted.